CURRENT TV AND APM MUSIC BREAK THE ‘SOUND BARRIER’ WITH BROAD MUSIC CLEARANCE AND LICENSING AGREEMENT

APM Music Deal Gives Producers Extraordinary Online Access to Premiere
Film and Television Music Library; Current Assumes Costs

San Francisco (September 14, 2006) – Providing filmmakers an unprecedented new tool in
creating short-form content that viscerally connects with young audiences, Current TV has
signed a multi-year agreement with APM Music, the largest and most diverse provider of music
for use in film, television, radio, and new media productions. APM and Current TV are two of
the first companies to empower independent producers by giving them unfettered access to the
largest music library in the industry. Current will pay for all associated costs, which include
synch and master use fees for use on Current’s broadcast network and website.

For the first time, Current’s video producers – what the network calls its viewer created content
(VC2) community – will have access to over 200,000 professional recordings through a cobranded version of APM Music’s website, accessible through Current’s online studio
(www.current.tv). Producers can score their own short-form “pods” with music that may be
easily downloaded and searched by a deep array of styles and categories, using proprietary music search functionality developed by APM Music in conjunction Los Angeles-based Globalist.net, which allows content creators to easily find and audition recordings based on guided and textbased descriptive queries.

“Throughout the history of media, there was a great ‘sound barrier.’ The best stuff was reserved
for the media elite, and everyone else got what was left over. Today, APM and Current have torn
down that barrier. It’s another step in our mission to democratize media,” stated David Neuman,
president of programming for Current TV.

Recent productions featuring APM Music’s recordings include the major motion picture releases
Superman Returns, Cars and Nacho Libre, theatrical film trailers for The Devil Wears Prada, XMen 3 and Monster House, the television shows “The Simpsons,” “Nip/Tuck” and “The Daily
Show” and the videogame titles The Godfather, Grand Theft Auto and NBA Live 07.


“This arrangement, the first of its kind, makes the vast APM Music library available to the
creators of consumer generated media, while recognizing the rights of the respective copyright
owners,” stated APM Music President Adam Taylor. “This will be an important model moving
forward for all consumer generated media sites.”

Prior to this offering, clearing rights for music used in a film required several arduous steps.
Producers usually have to conduct extensive research to find who held the publishing rights (the
intellectual property rights around the actual composition) and the master recording rights (the
rights to use the composition recording), and then negotiate permission to use the music in
synchronization with a visual image. Each rights holder typically needs to be compensated, and
failure to do so can result in copyright infringement.

The sheer scope and complexity of the process is a barrier to most independent producers, many
of whom are not even aware that such permissions need to be obtained. The arrangement
between APM and Current TV not only simplifies the music clearance process, it also goes a
long way towards educating producers about their legal responsibilities when using music
created and recorded by someone else.

About APM Music
APM Music, a joint venture of EMI Music Publishing (the world’s largest music publisher) and
BMG Music Publishing (a division of Bertelsmann AG) provides the United States and Canada
with exclusive access to over 23 different music libraries specifically created for use in film,
television, radio, recording, and new media. APM Music is the largest and most diverse
collection of original music available to entertainment and media producers. For more
information about APM’s production music library as well as its custom music services, please
visit: http://www.ipressroom.com/pr/apm/info/news.asp

About Current TV
Current TV, which launched August 1, 2005, is the first national network created by, for and
with an 18-34 year-old audience. The network shows young adults what’s going on in their
world, in their voice. Current is also the first network in history whose programming is supplied
in part by the very audience who watches it. It has developed the television industry’s leading
model of “viewer created content” (VC2), which comprises roughly one-third of Current’s on-air
broadcast, and allows the audience to submit short-form, nonfiction video “pods,” “viewer
created ads” (V-CAMs), and mobile video. Its award-winning programming ranges from the
hottest trends in technology, fashion, music and videogames, to pressing issues such as the
environment, relationships, parenting, finance, politics and spirituality. Current is available in 30million U.S. homes via Comcast (channel 107 nationwide), Time Warner Cable, and DirecTV
(channel 366 nationwide). For more information, please visit the website: www.current.tv.
# # #

Southern Comfort

I checked Southern Comfort out from Ellen's blog and absolutely loved it! I really admire the filmmaker; it was so obvious that she completely immersed herself in the lives of these people. She did such a good job of setting up the plot, and revealing a little bit more piece by piece throughout the story. Sometimes I find this annoying...I want to know certain things right away or I'm already asking myself questions before the filmmaker reveals the answers. That was not the case in this film. Right when they revealed something, I had just asked myself a moment before. It would be a question like 'hey what about when he was younger? Did he always know?' She revealed these things to us in a tasteful and timely manner.
Another part of this movie that I really liked was the cinematography, which I think could have been a bit challenging. It didn't seem like she had a lot of equipment, but she definitely made the most out of camera angles and what she let us see. At one point for example, when two characters were hugging, the shot was just of their legs and lower half of their torsos. It was obvious by their dress that they were male/female, but when she opened the shot up wider, we realized that the characters were once female/male respectively. This technique allowed us to really feel their emotion and got us out of the technicalities of the gender plot line.
At one point I did get a bit bored. It lulled at one point for me, but the beginning and end were both really strong. There was a lot of really good character development that made me want to know how these people are doing now. It really was a great movie, and I suggest anyone looking for a great doc to watch should check this one out!

We're All On Display, says Ondi Timoner

We all live in public. It's a reality now. Everyday when I log on to facebook, I have the option of reading all about what people are doing. And now with Twitter, people have become more obsessed with a barrage of constantly updated details. We all want to know what our friends are doing, and we also want all of our friends to know what we are doing. One of the most fascinating documentaries I saw at SXSW, We Live in Public, dealt with this whole phenomenon in an interesting way.

In We Live in Public (2009), director Ondi Timoner (of Dig! fame) tells the story of Josh Harris,  a former internet pioneer who predicted our current facebook culture back in the late 1990's. Josh hinted back in 1998 and 1999 that millions of people would one day voluntarily expose themselves to the world. The idea sounded incredibly radical at the time, and indeed it was. It took Timoner ten years to make her documentary because, according to the director, technology had to catch up with her subject's vision.

The film was whittled down from 5000 hours of footage (including archival footage) into a 90 minute feature. I could not believe these numbers when I heard them at the Q & A, but they quickly began to make sense after I thought about the film's content (you'll see what I mean when you get around to watching the doc). Regardless of how long it took to edit this film, the editing was time well spent, as the documentary is absolutely terrific. Not only does it take the audience on an incredibly unique and unheard of journey, but it also manages to raise a lot of really interesting questions.

Currently, Obsessed (a studio movie released by Sony) is running a viral marketing campaign (via the movie's website) that allows you to send stalker videos to your friends. The videos might seem invasive at first, but one must realize that facebook is ten times as invasive (or at least as invasive as me make it). We're all exposed now, and we've all been documenting our lives via the internet for years. Whether or not we feel we're being stalked, we are all probably doing a little stalking ourselves. Next time your're on facebook (or twitter, or myspace, etc.), just remember, you're being watched. 

P.S.: To check out the creepy stalking application mentioned above, follow the link below:

www.getobsessedwithali.com

Good ol' Bradley Beesley!

I love when Bradley Beesley visits the class; there is something inspiring about that man. He is very different from our guest 2 weeks ago, Peter Esmonde, who left a rather bitter taste in my mouth. Instead of being cynical about post-graduation and entering the film industry, I liked how he told us about people he knows that have started out as production assistants for different television shows and have eventually worked up to becoming executive producers. Although this takes a good amount of years, it is still nice to know that we can start somewhere after we graduate and work ourselves up the ladder to the position we would like to be in. I know there are other ways to make it in the industry, but starting out at the bottom isn't so bad, and heck, you'll learn a ton on your way up.

Bradley's work was again very well done, especially his piece on the conman hypnotist. The subject was phenomenal and his work was out of this world! Bradley said that when you look at it all on paper it's just epic, and I have a hard time imagining how much more crazy it could get. I was very suprised I hadn't heard of the guy, but I think that makes it all the better for selling purposes. It's a very fresh story instead of one that has been played out. I definitely think it has a very good chance of being sold to a production company. This, in and of itself, was very interesting as well. I never really thought about how you could make a short documentary and sell it to another production company to be expanded/remade, but it makes sense. I wonder how much he could sell that short for to a company wanting to produce a feature length narrative? And I wonder if you could run a business making short films and selling them? That's something we could all do right now even in school.

Sarah and Lauren's Experimental Production Report

Killeen, TX

- Sarah and Lauren

Submit to 10 under 10 !

You can pick up an entry form at the RTF office. (6.118) or email us at tenunderten@gmail.com and we can send one. 

The deadline is Tuesday, April 7th!

Transgeneration - Doc Series

          Another one of the films I watched over the break was an 8-part series put out by the Sundance Channel called Transgeneration, which follows four college students through a few years in their gender transition. There are lots of questions that surround transgender and transsexual identities, and I'm not sure that this series does much work toward answering those questions. The episodes, however, do a fantastic job of normalizing the trans experience, presenting these students as just ordinary people. There is not much extraordinary about the film techniques or the editing style or anything else artistic that we look for in the documentaries we watch as doc students, and I feel, at times, detached from the characters. Maybe that is my cisgender privilege shining through - I have never spent time considering the "meaning" or significance of my gender identity. The filmmakers do a fantastic job of getting access to these students and their struggles with college life, transphobia, hormone treatment, surgery, expenses, unsympathetic parents, friends, relationships, sex, drugs and everything that most transgender college students would probably experience.

          If there's one thing I can say for Transgeneration, it would be that this film exposes a life experience that never ever gets talked about. I imagine that for the most part, people in our class, in our major, and even in our university know very little about non-conforming gender identities or transfolk in general. I have been privileged with an interest in LGBTQ studies and being part of the first Peers for Pride program in the school of Social Work. Now I can say I know more about this community that never gets mentioned, but this invisibility rarely gets talked about. The trans community never gets unveiled. No one can be blamed for this masking - homophobia and transphobia and just plain old ignorance keep cisgender people out of the loop, and fear of being outed as trans keeps transfolk from being visible and talking about their situation. Even in the LGBTQ population, transgender and transsexual people rarely get their fair shake, and Transgeneration, and films like it, are definitely overdue. If you're looking to kill 5-6 hours of your time watching what is basically a reality-TV-style documentary, that's what you'll find in this series. And if you're looking to learn more about transfolk or a walk of life you'll probably never otherwise be exposed to, check out Transgeneration.

SXSW: Trimpin Sounds His Inventions

One of the documentaries that I was most looking forward to seeing at SXSW was Trimpin: The Sound of Invention. I was certainly intrigued by what our guest, Peter Esmonde, had to say during our lab. I was very interested in seeing what kind of style Esmonde had put together, considering the fact that he slammed many of the formulaic documentary narratives (ie the competition film ala Spellbound).

What I ended up seeing on screen really impressed me. Trimpin: The Sound of Invention is a very subtle film that mixes verite elements with a few talking heads to great effect. Not once does Pete make his filmmaker presence known (no cameos, narration, etc). This film is what it should be: a portrait of Trimpin. The film had some really great sound design, incorporating Trimpin's musical inventions in a nice way. As Pete mentioned, there is a bit of an arching narrative, but this narrative never gets in the way of the artist portrait. Towards the end of the film, I began to understand what it is that makes Trimpin tick. Leaving the theater, I was inspired to create my own musical inventions. Needles to say, I've yet to follow through on this inspiration, but hopefully I can dive right into this undertaking in the near future.

The whole film experience was made better by the fact that I got to meet Trimpin himself. The artist had his own mini gallery set up inside the State Theater downtown. I tell you, nothing is cooler than getting to hand out with a really insane/brilliant artist/inventor. Not only did I get to meet the subject, but I also got to experience some of his incredible work first hand. As all this was transpiring, I couldn't help but wonder why Trimpin isn't more well known. Hopefully Peter's doc will raise the artist's profile. Here's hoping that film gets distributed, and that some day, I can commission Trimpin to make an invention for myself!

 

Lipan Apaches get Texas State recognition

For those of y'all in our class last semester, just wanted to update you on some awesome news about the Lipan Apache Tribe. Nancy (the Tribal Historian) emailed me with this to say:

"The Tribe was up in Austin yesterday, where the Texas Legislature voted a Joint Resolution recognizing the Lipan Apache Tribe's historical and modern presence in Texas. Yay!!!! Finally, the government is beginning to recognize that we've been here all along, and your documentary played a big role in getting us to this point. Thank you again for your great work.As a matter of fact....... I sacrificed my copy of the documentary so that Texas Senators and Reps could see your documentary and I think it played a big role. So you had other viewings that you didn't know about until now."

More information here: http://news8austin.com/content/top_stories/default.asp?ArID=235726

SXSW: A Great Week for Documentaries

Wow, it's been quite a spring break. I decided to purchase a film pass, and I recommend anyone reading this do so next year. The pass turned out to be an incredible value (only $70), allowing me to see films I may never get to see again (although, I hope this isn't the case).  Anyways, to get to the point, during the next few weeks, I'll be posting reviews on many (if not all) of the documentaries I had the chance to see. I hope that all of you will go out and see many of these films if and when they become available. Happy Reading!

Welcome Back!

Hi All,

Welcome Back! We have a busy week with two guests coming. In class we have John Fiege, a graduate of our MFA program.

Check out his websites:

www.fiegefilms.com

www.redcameratexas.com

Bradley Beasley will be coming to lab. Feel free to bring guests.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradley_Beesley

Let me know if you would like to meet individually this week: I am available Wed. before 2 p.m. or anytime Thursday.

Ellen

Spring Break Documentaries - Gendernauts

     While all of you were sunbathing or getting married or editing your docs (yeah, right), I was stuck in San Antonio watching documentaries on a laptop. Now, please, I don't need your pity. I know it sounds awful, but don't cry for me - I'm not worth your tears.

    The first film I watched featured our own Sandy Stone from the RTF department in an era when her hair looked a little bit better but she was still just as sassy and verbose. Gendernauts: A Journey Through Shifting Identities, directed by Monika Treut, a German native whose work has spanned across the narrative-documentary spectrum, presents a spectrum of its own. Featuring half a dozen or so characters in fairly standard talking-head interviews, Gendernauts presents gender identities and theories about gender and sexuality that are changing the way the world thinks about "men" and "women."

          Sandy Stone's theoretical vociferations bookend these interviews, and she is presented as a sort of fairy godexpert, omniscient and omnipresent, able to talk about everything from MTFs, FTMS, boyz, butch dykes and everything in between. Some of the major characters in the piece include Texas Tomboy (pictured on the cover above), Annie Sprinkle (celebrated sex artist), Jordy Jones, Max Valerio and other gender-benders from the San Francisco Bay Area. Now, if you're looking for "interesting interview techniques," as our instructor has challenged us to do, this may not be the right movie, but if you just want to expand your understanding of gender and its infinite possibilities, Gendernauts might be the film for you. The incredibly provocative and inspiring characters make the otherwise by-the-book interviews exciting. This film is completely worth it just for the subjects and what they have to say. I guess that's the whole point of a good documentary, anyway. Right?

Peter Esmonde Lecture

I really liked what Esmonde had to say about the "reality" of documentaries. I agree with him in that saying documentaries are completely true portrayals of reality is "horse shit." No matter how observational and objective we aim to be in our filmmaking, our documentaries are still a construct of reality. Even if our cameras were hidden, like the lipstick cams used in Taxicab Confessions, we still have to edit the footage into something concise enough not to bore the shit out of our audience.
For an example, the other day I was watching Taxicab Confessions with a friend of mine, who like most is relatively media-illiterate. She made some remark about how short the cab rides seemed to be and I began to tell her about how the producers had to edit the rides into episode format and were likely to only include the most sensational or compelling footage. "If they included everything the person said we'd be bored to death," I told her. Reality television and documentaries might be closer to "reality" than narrative, but by virtue of the editing process, we essentially "edit" reality into a different version of itself. We take out the parts that we don't think are important or interesting, but that other people might have included. All of us are familiar with how easy it is to portray our subjects in a particular light. In my documentary from last semester about study drugs, I interviewed people and used only a couple minutes in the final cut. Some people definitely thought that Justine, one of my subjects, came off as kind of crazy. I found it funny because I know her personally and I don't think that's the reality of it or what I really wanted to do. But I didn't even take her out of context, I simply included the footage I thought was most interesting. So, even though our work might help to expose the greater truths of society (like how the phenomenon of using non-prescribed study drugs is certainly real) we can also easily come off as misrepresenting the truth (like how Justine is really a pretty sane individual). The Heisenberg Uncertainty principle states that you cannot know both the exact velocity and the exact position of a subatomic particle at the same time because the very act of measuring changes the momentum of the particle by a degree that cannot be determined. Think of our cameras as the photons of light that bounce of the particles in order to measure them.

Personal Release Forms

Hi All,

You should get release forms signed by all your primary subjects. Underage subjects need parent or guardian signature.

You can print out a release and customize with your info HERE:

http://www.sawvideo.com/youth/downloads/RELEASE%20FORM.doc

DJ Spooky's Antartica Project

I mentioned DJ Spooky in class today.

Here is the link to his work:

http://djspooky.com/art/terra_nova.php

Documentary Journalism

Hi FOlks,

The links I wanted to show today, before we ran out of time, are here. Check out the differences in approach.

Documentary Journalism:

In the first video, from CNN, “Girl poet takes on the Taliban with her pen”, we see the story of a girl, Tuba Sahaab, who fights the right for her education as the Taliban try to prevent her and other girls from attending school..

Narration guiding the viewer along into the story. The piece from The New York Times, below, also has narration, but the differences are clear: the first one pushes us into the story in a rapid style telling us what to think, taking the story at face-value, while the documentary–while guiding us with narration–feels more like an invitation into the story, taking us deeper into the emotions that circulate among the characters.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/02/17/pakistan.girl.poet/index.html#cnnSTCVideo

Of course the longer length of the film in the New York Times video helps when creating more depth. But these are the kinds of choices that online newspapers can offer–outside the corporate broadcast news model–allowing for the publication of a nearly 15 minute documentary that gets at the heart of what makes good documentary journalism: a character centered story of a man and his daughter standing up for their rights against the narrow spectrum of Taliban’s Islamic rule. This documentary is by Adam Ellick and Irfan Ashraf. It contains a great story structure that balances cinema verite style with a newsy narration approach that provides context for the political struggle occurring in Pakistan’s fertile Swat Valley.

http://video.nytimes.com/video/2009/02/22/world/asia/1194838044017/class-dismissed-in-swat-valley.html

Rise School Post #1

I wanted to make a quick post in case anyone was curious about the Rise School and John and I's progress. In session 11 months out of the year, the Rise School is home to children 18 months to 6 years old. The program caters to children with all types of special learning disabilities, but each classroom is split about 50/50 with what they call "typical" children, those without disabilities. There are about 10 children per classroom grouped by age, one teacher with a master's degree in childhood development, and 2-3 TAs, many of them grad. students. The program and learning is therapy based and students meet with therapists every week. By graduation, the children, both typical and with disabilities, have progressed tremendously and go on to Kindergarten. The school gets about 67% of its running costs through special events and fundraisers, and is located, although not affiliated, inside an evangelical church (think Marjoe...shit!) in south Austin. Everyone associated with the school is really excited about the project and we are finding great families and stories to document. Here are some pictures. Video to come soon.


Typical classroom setting. The kids are learning about different countries.


Kids doing this really funny running back drill. Look at all the little future Colts.


Little ones painting. Cute as crap.

SXSW: GET READY, HERE THEY COME ! ! !

Hi All,

This is a remarkable year for RTF alum and friends at SXSW.

CHECK OUT THE FILMS BELOW and remember you can buy a FILM PASS CHEAP!

6 DOCUMENTARIES WITH LOCAL CONNECTIONS, NOT TO MISS
Listed in order of their SXSW premiers (and check the websites at each film for their other screening dates and times during the week)

SATURDAY, MARCH 14TH

11 AM, Paramount Theater (713 Congress Ave. - over 1000 seats, so you'll get in for sure)

Sweethearts of the Prison Rodeo
Director: Bradley Beesley, Editor: Lucy Kreutz (RTF grad)
In Sweethearts of the Prison Rodeo, filmmaker Bradley Beesley ("Okie Noodling") visits and explores an oddball American phenomenon: that of the prison rodeo. He journeys with his cameras to Oklahoma State Prison - the only remaining U.S. prison rodeo that is actually located on penitentiary grounds - and watches, cameras rolling, as ill-prepared male and female convicts risk their lives for the promise of cash and a brief spotlight.
http://sxsw.com/film/screenings/schedule/?a=show&s=F14868

3 PM, Alamo Ritz Theater (320 E. 6th St.)

Sunshine
Director: Karen Skloss (RTF grad), Cinematography: Lee Daniel
It all starts with getting knocked up. An unplanned pregnancy for an unplanned girl sets off SUNSHINE, a playful, yet ultimately stirring self-portrait of an adopted woman driven to search for answers through reconnection with her biological mother.

http://sxsw.com/film/screenings/schedule/?a=show&s=F15896

7 PM, Alamo Lamar (1120 South Lamar Blvd - lots of parking!)

Winnebago Man
Director: Ben Steinbauer (RTF grad), Edited by Malcolm Pullinger, Cinematography: Bradley Beesley & Berndt Mader (RTF grad)
Jack Rebney is the most famous man you've never heard of -- after cursing his way through a Winnebago sales video, Rebney's outrageously funny outtakes became an underground sensation and made him an internet superstar.

http://sxsw.com/film/screenings/schedule/?a=show&s=F16174#

SUNDAY, MARCH 15TH

4:30 PM, Sunday March 15th - Alamo Lamar

Chronicles of a Professional Eulogist
Director: Sarah Jane Lapp
Okay, it's not a documentary, but based on interviews with eulogists galore, including the aforementioned Rabbi, this beautifully hand-drawn animation, scored by Mark Dresser, follows a eulogist-in-training and his encounter with the interstitial spaces our communal memories create between mortality and immortality. A decade in the making, this world premier is part of the SXSW Experimental film program at 4:30, Sunday the 15th.

http://sxsw.com/film/screenings/schedule/?a=show&s=F14864

TUESDAY, MARCH 17TH

11 AM, Paramount Theater

Over the Hills and Far Away
Director: Michel Orion Scott (RTF grad)
Over the Hills and Far Away, which premiered at Sundance this tear, is a film about one family's struggle to find answers to their son's autism. Shot over the course of two years, this film follows the Isaacson family as they journey on horseback across Mongolia from healer to healer, and the amazing healings they found for their son, and for themselves.

http://sxsw.com/film/screenings/schedule/?a=show&s=F15281#

____________________________________________________________________

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 18TH

7:15 PM, Alamo Lamar

The Eyes of Me
Director: Keith Maitland
An extraordinary look at 4 blind teens. The parallel stories of 2 freshmen and 2 seniors unfold over the course of one dynamic year at the Texas School for the Blind in Austin. EYES offers a fresh perspective on growing up and fitting in. Distilled from over 250 hours of footage, this experiential doc captures a textured portrait of its characters.

http://sxsw.com/film/screenings/schedule/?a=show&s=F15043


THURSDAY, MARCH 19TH

7:30 PM, Paramount Theater

Along Came Kinky...Texas Jewboy for Governor
Director: David Hartstein (RTF grad), Editor: Sam Douglas, Music: Kinky Friedman
For all of you political junkies, "Along Came Kinky..." chronicles singing Jewish cowboy Kinky Friedman's 2006 independent gubernatorial campaign in Texas.

http://sxsw.com/film/screenings/schedule/?a=show&s=F15244#


Enjoy!

Ellen

something to think about

Everyone asks me how I get my subjects to open up to me. There’s no formula to it. It’s just a matter of who you are and how you talk to people – of being yourself. Your subjects will trust you only if you’re confident about what you’re doing. They can sense that immediately. I’m really bothered by photographers who first approach a subject without a camera, try to establish a personal relationship, and only then get out their cameras. It’s deceptive. I think you should just show up with a camera, to make your intentions clear. People will either accept you or they won’t.

 

- Mary Ellen Mark -"American Photo", September/October 1998. , Page: 92

Check out her documentary Streetwise if you get the chance as well.

Marjoe

          So, today we watched Marjoe, another incredible character piece. I can't recall many other characters - documentary or fiction - as extremely high-and-low as Marjoe Gortner. I had never heard of him before seeing this film, but I did some more research after getting home from the screening. Apparently after the success of this film, Marjoe tried to break into the music and film industries, releasing a single album called "Bad, but Not Evil," which was met with incredibly poor reviews and sales. His film career was less short-lived, as Gortner starred in about forty films and TV shows, although most of them b-list flops. Nevertheless, Marjoe in Marjoe was a sight to see.

          I enjoyed the film simply because of Marjoe's "performance." He was a very compelling character, and his moral dilemma was an interesting struggle. As a person who grew up in a church and later abandoned his spiritual upbringing, I could feel for Marjoe in this film. A lot of the ideas of corruption and swindling that I had always considered about some of the Christian faith were made much more apparent in the film. Regardless of your spiritual beliefs, I think this film presents a realistic picture of the treatment of faith in the 1960s and 70s. It was an altogether revolutionary time in this country, and many people Marjoe's age were beginning to break away from their upbringing in very startling ways. Marjoe is just another example of this. It just so happens that his childhood was so extraoridinary that when Marjoe became a pot-smoking hippie, it seemed like such an extreme change.

          I did think the film was very interesting for a lot of its thematics, but to be honest, if there had been less of Marjoe, I would have fallen asleep. There were really only a few minutes of interviews, it seemed, and the meat of the movie was just incredibly drawn out scenes from his revival meetings. After the first three or four or twenty(!!!) minutes of each meeting, I wanted them to hurry up and move on! Seriously! I was dying! It seemed like the filmmakers could have alloted much more time to interviews with Marjoe about his childhood because we only got a few snippets of that. It would have been good to hear more from other people, also, instead of just Marjoe. Instead, we just got two or three incredibly drawn out scenes that could have been a fraction of their original length. I think that would have made it a much stronger film.

          Then again, it did win an Oscar. But so did Slumdog.

Southern Comfort

          The second movie I checked out  this week (and didn't return) was Southern Comfort, a film we've screened in class a couple of times and one that Ellen talks about a lot as an interesting example of a character-based documentary. I think this film is also a great example of the power of personal narratives. The film was obviously made for very, very little money. The footage is awful not white-balanced. The audio isn't all that great. There doesn't seem to be any lighting aside from incidental lights and natural sunlight. There's nothing fancy about the editing style, the narrative structure or the score.

          Nevertheless, Southern Comfort is still a very powerful and tragic story. As someone who has shot a "documentary," at least that's what I call it, on a dinky DV camera and edited together on Final Cut, the movie is inspiring. So much is accomplished by the filmmakers just by being there, capturing every moment - important or insignificant.

          The film follows a transsexual couple, Robert and Lola, one of who is a FtM (female-to-male) who is dying of ovarian/cervical cancer, as they try to make one last trip to Southern Comfort, an annual trans conference in the southern United States. The movie presents interesting opinions on class issues in the queer communities and how transgender identities are so often ignored, invisible or oppressed in both the mainstream United States and even in the queer community.

          For those of you who have rented/enjoyed/seen Tarnation, Paris is Burning, or any other queer/trans docs, I think you'll really enjoy this movie. It's very simple and humble and personal, but I believe that anyone can get into this film.

OUTSIDE EVENT: Ellen Kuras Mon. March 9 AND Tues. March 10-- THE BETRAYAL (NERAKHOON)

HI ALL,

I highly recommend this event and I will count it as TWO outside events. If you have never been to the Austin Studios screening room, you will be amazed!

It is FREE but you have to make a reservation HERE:

http://www.austinfilm.org/film/the-betrayal

Ellen Kuras presents THE BETRAYAL (NERAKHOON)
March 10, 7pm
Austin Studios Screening Room

Ellen Kuras will also be doing a Master Class in 4D on Monday at 6 p.m. which will count as one outside event. GET THERE EARLY if you want to get in!

Q & A with Ellen Kuras after the film

Filmed over 23 years, THE BETRAYAL is the directorial debut of renowned cinematographer Ellen Kuras in a remarkable collaboration with the film's subject and co-director Thavisouk Phrasavath. During the Vietnam War, the United States government waged its own secret war in the neighboring country of Laos. When the U.S. withdrew, thousands of Laotians who fought alongside American forces were left behind to face imprisonment or execution. One family, the Phrasavaths, made the courageous decision to escape to America. Hoping to find safety, they discovered a different war. Epic in scope yet devastatingly intimate, featuring an exquisite score by Academy Award winning composer Howard Shore, THE BETRAYAL is a testament to the resilient bonds of family and an astonishing tale of survival.

Ellen Kuras was first widely recognized for her cinematography on Tom Kalin's SWOON, which earned her the Cinematography Prize at the 1992 Sundance Film Festival. She has won that award an unprecendented three times, next for her work on Rebecca Miller's film ANGELA in 1995 and Miller's PERSONAL VELOCITY in 2002. She has shot multiple films for directors like Spike Lee (4 LITTLE GIRLS, BAMBOOZLED, SUMMER OF SAM) and Michel Gondry (ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND, BE KIND REWIND) and is one of the few women cinematographers hired to shoot studio pictures, working on films like ANALYZE THAT and THE MOD SQUAD. THE BETRAYAL is her directorial debut and was nominated for the Best Documentary Oscar in 2009.


March 10, 7pm
Austin Studios Screening Room
Register for this event

For assistance with ticketing, call (512) 322-0145 during business hours.

Official website for THE BETRAYAL

Ticket information
Tickets are free. Attendance is limited to AFS Filmmaker-level members and above.

Because seating is limited, you must register to attend the screening (no exceptions). Please register early, as we expect strong interest in this screening.

Mobile Loaves and Fishes - Matt and Chance

Here is a youtube quality version of our first night out with Mobile Loaves and Fishes. It is primarily B Roll with background ambience of a man who was playing the guitar at the first stop we made. We plan on going out with several other teams and to get interviews from a few key figures who help with the organization including Tony (a former homeless man who now has his own place to live and volunteers for Mobile Loaves and Fishes himself) as well as the President of MLF Alan Graham.

American Splendor - "It's 'plebian.' Where the hell did she get that shit, man?"

          I missed last week's screening and thanks to me, nobody could check out movies from Ellen's library this week, so first off, I want to apologize if you didn't hear me in class. I'll give my checked out DVDs to Ying at the screening tomorrow.

          Anyway, I'm also trying to make up for my absence at the screening last week by blogging on the two movies I have checked out. The first one I watched was American Splendor, which we started in class last week (or the week before). One of the reasons I was interested in watching this movie was because of my project with Huda this semester. I thought this movie was a good example of how films can branch away from this old school idea that Documentary = Real and Fiction = Fake. To me, the idea that documentary is "better" than fiction film because it tells "real stories" is, frankly, bullshit. If documentary is supposed to be a representation of real life, then there should be no editing. There should be no sound except for the sound that comes out of the subjects' mouths. There should be no cuts, no edits, no transitions, nothing added by the filmmakers. In other words, nothing exciting or interesting. How many of you would be interested in documentary if every two-hour doc was one incredibly long shot focusing on one action being done by one person? I'm not sure how long that medium would last...

          And fiction films tend to get flack from documentarians, I think, because they tend to believe that fiction is somehow "less real." To me, some of the most important things about human life are the things we dream up. Filmmakers who create fiction films splice together images and sounds to create a story as they wish it was told to create characters as they wish they looked, sounded and lived. In other words, fiction is the world as we wish we knew it. So, for me, American Splendor feels natural. The cuts between interviews with Harvey Pekar and Paul Giamatti's awesome portrayal are almost seamless, and I can't help but love any movie with such a fantastic cast. Giamatti is wonderful, and I've always loved his work. James Urbaniak, of Henry Fool and Fay Grim fame (two incredibly hilarious films by Hal Hartley that you have to see), is as bland and wonderful as ever.

          I would rather not talk too much about the "plot" of this film because I think that anyone interested in film - documentary, fiction, whatever - should see this movie, and I'd rather not spoil it. American Splendor has some great lessons for documentarians and even more for people interested in directing, acting, screenwriting, or editing. The film has some interesting tricks up its sleeves, including some great animation and sound editing. For those of you who have seen American Teen, a documentary that came out last year and caused some interesting debates in the film world, the blend of "fact" and "fiction", so to speak, is also present in American Splendor. Of course, this film is more intentionally fictional, but take a look. I think you'll like it.

Add the Doc Center on Facebook!

Hey Everybody,

The UT Doc Center now has a facebook page. Becoming a Doc Center friend is a great way to keep up with our events. Here's the link:

http://www.facebook.com/people/Ut-DocCenter/1266328165

Happy Facebooking,

Jason

Over the weekend Sarah and I filmed three events: the Winter Soldier conference, the protest march that followed, and the grand opening of the cafe. We ended up with 7 tapes total from this weekend (!) The footage looks good so we're excited but with all that footage there's a lot of work to be done. I've also started experimenting with some music.
-Sarah and Lauren

Special Guest on March 11 6 p.m. -BRING FRIENDS

HI All,

We have a very special guest coming on Wed. March 11, Peter Esmonde, who worked in the non-fiction industry (Discovery Channel, among others) for many years before embarking on his own independent documentary, TRIMPIN: the sound of invention.

Please feel free to bring friends to the event, as the Doc Center is co-sponsoring. You will see sneak previews from the film before the SXSW premier!

You can read about TRIMPIN and see the trailer here:

http://trimpin.blogspot.com/

Ellen